Why should you review your retirement plan?
As a Plan sponsor, you have a fiduciary responsibility under the Employee Retirement and Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to understand all aspects of the retirement plan you offer to your employees and to act with “care, skill, prudence and diligence”.
ERISA was specifically enacted by the Department of Labor to protect the interests of participants in employee benefit plans from abuses and discriminatory practices. Many Plan sponsors are not aware of the scope of responsibility they have undertaken by offering a qualified retirement plan and rely on unskilled advisors to protect their interests.
By reviewing your Plan with our professional retirement plan consultant, you are taking appropriate measures to meet your fiduciary obligations. Our review process will help you:
- Determine whether fees being paid by the employer and the participants are fair
- Assess the Plan’s investments by comparing fees, performance and diversification against industry benchmarks
- Review Plan documents and reports to assure compliance with current IRS and DOL regulations
- Analyze the Plan design to determine whether your Plan may provide greater benefits to both the employer and employees
Can your current investment advisor do these things for you? Most likely not.
Click here to learn more about Fiduciary Liability under ERISA
What do we need to review your plan and why?
We can perform a high-level review of your plan or a very in-depth, detailed review. It all depends on how much information you are willing to provide to us. We will ask for the following information:
- Investment provider/ recordkeeper contract, including list of current investments and account balances – We will review the investments for performance, reasonable fees and proper diversification. We will benchmark the investment fees, as well as the contract fees, to industry standards for your Plan size.
- Plan document, including amendments and Summary Plan Description - We will confirm you legal document are up-to-date. We will also review your Plan design and discuss alternate options with you.
- Most recent allocation report – We will confirm your Plan is following the legal Plan document, such as eligibility requirements and allocation of profit sharing contributions.
- Most recent Form 5500 – We will confirm the Plan is in compliance with DOL filing requirements
Click here for sample questionnaire
What is done during the Request for Proposal
phase of the Plan review?
In order to benchmark your Plan, we will request proposals from several other service and investment providers. We will compare the investments, features, services and expenses of each provider against each other and against your current Plan provider.
All providers have slightly different formats, fee structures and features, making it difficult for Plan sponsors to understand how the programs compare. Determining whether another provider has a better product or service is one of the most frustrating challenges facing plan sponsors. So many plan sponsors stay in the same program for years, often paying too much or not taking advantage of newer and better services.
By allowing us to perform the RFP and provide you with a written analysis, you will have an easy-to-understand, readable comparison of providers appropriate for your Plan size. You may be surprised to find out what you are missing or how much you are paying.
